Found Something Great? Tell Two Friends

As a child of the 70’s and 80’s, I had the privilege of growing up in an environment where there was a handful of channels on the television; if you had more than one TV in the house, the other was still black and white; and I WAS the remote control. Families would stay home at specific times on different nights of the week like clockwork to watch their favorite shows. At that time, the choices were limited with regional programming, three major networks, PBS and two local stations if you were in a major market area. TV was a free source of entertainment, at least on the surface. Before cable television was everywhere, before VCRs revolutionized the television industry; Americans watched commercials, and those 30 second celebrations of product placement and trend-setting drove our spending patterns. 

Yes – shocking as it may be to anyone under 35, once upon a time we had no choice. If you turned away, for that 2 minutes and 2 seconds you may miss something important on your favorite show with no rewind. With such a captive audience, television ads were the primary source of marketing for any B to C business, and ad agencies were the puppet-masters of American Consumerism. It was so engaging, so exciting, and so sexy! How they used catchy slogans, beautiful people, and magnificent jingles that to this day are tattooed into my memory as the soundtrack of an era to tell me what was good, what was popular, what I needed; and I was hooked!  

Could I, too, a little girl from suburban NYC learn the mastery of marketing to one day spread the gospel of the next great shampoo to make our world a better place? YES! I knew I could do it - but at the tender age of 10, I had limited resources; so if I liked something, I did as they instructed me on television and started by telling two friends…

Fast forward a decade, and while my BBA in Marketing did specialize in Advertising and Promotion, as with many, my career path veered in a different direction… mine went west. While Madison Avenue did beckon, so did Las Vegas. I traded “The City that Never Sleeps” for the “Entertainment Capital of the World”. I gave up the inevitable Metro North Commuter Pass to literally and figuratively roll the dice in a city that was on the brink of evolution, and along the way jumped whole-heartedly into being a faithful minion of our city, developing countless ways for corporate groups to enjoy the limitless opportunities within our destination; and after each successful program I would tell my clients, “You’re welcome… tell two friends”.

While the times have indeed changed, my location has changed, the industry pool in which I thought I would swim forever has changed, those simple words of wisdom that were incessantly ingrained into my psyche by the masterminds behind the 1980’s Faberge Shampoo ads continue to hold true. If you like something, if you like ANYTHING… tell two friends.

For B to C business, television ads are no longer a primary source of viable marketing to build a brand. Print media limits your target audience to skew older, Social Media to skew younger. There is no saying what may work for a particular brand.

For a B to B service based business like mine, an independent Destination Management Company, it’s even harder to target market. While television ads were never a viable option for B to B, engaging a potential client through print media has lower odds than the old needle-in-a-haystack, and while Social Media is great to inform and inspire; when a legitimate meeting planner needs to find a service provider, they usually don’t check their Twitter Feed or Instagram Page to judge the level of service that they can provide. 

The one constant though, no matter how much times have changed, is that when a consumer needs something personally or professionally… nine times out of ten, they ask a friend. In this age, that friend can be Google, Facebook, an Industry Association Board, or it can be quite literally (shocking as it may seem to some) a living, breathing human friend.

I was asked today by an up-and-coming DMC what the best way to develop your business is, and my advice is to go above and beyond to do the very best job that you can do, and at the end of the event, ask them to tell two friends. Same applies to any service based small business, whether you’re a CPA, a CMP, a Restauranteur, or a Dog Groomer -  if you make the conscious effort to ask your clients, colleagues, vendors, ANYONE who expresses satisfaction or appreciation for your work to simply tell two friends, and the friends like your work…

Then they’ll tell two friends… and they’ll tell two friends… and they’ll tell two friends…

Was this worth the read? If so, tell two friends. Maybe one of them will need an amazing DMC in Vegas.